Creating memories

I am trying to think of some "rituals" to bring into the home once we move and get settled to create fond childhood memories for my kids. Does anyone out here have any suggestions for weekend (or daily) activities that we can do as a family that would be fun? (We haven't had a weekend together as a family in sooo long...I don't remember how ) Creating holiday memories is easier....we go to the candlelight service at church, put out cookies and milk, have Turkey for lunch on christmas day...........but what about the day-to-day things? This is going to be my new project.



Kris

kris:

what a great idea! reality says that i am closer to having kids than actually BEING a kid - however, i will ignore reality and tell you my fond memories from childhood! we always went to this pizza restaurant once a week - i think it was tuesday nights. i soooo looked forward to that night. you just can't imagine! hmmmm...something that my almost husband (ahhh! we are so close now!) and i are planning on doing is having "francais" night in our house. once a week will be french day/evening and we will speak only french, eat a french meal, etc -- i am set on having our children speak fluent french since i didn't learn!

i'll let you know as i think of more...

We've started some rituals that our two year olds are reallly grooving on. Like making pancakes on the weekend, and going for a walk to "look at the river". The girls like to pick a long, tall piece of grass and pretend they are fishing in their stroller on the way home. Also, whenever we go to the mall, they like to see a woman that works at the coffee shop and ride on the horse carousel. ("Go mall, get cookie, see Sheryl, ride horsie"). I think my kids LOVE ritual! So, whatever you do they will love. Lately we've been making popcorn after supper and sitting on the couch to watch Toy Story 2. They love that too!

I have been spending some time thinking about the things that I remember as a child.....I have always been told that kids crave routine and rituals....now I realize that most of what I remember the best from my own childhood are the more day-to-day things that we did regularly....ie go to IHOP after church on Sundays or come home and have my dad cook omellettes.....



We haven't been that great about beginning routines and now is definately a good time to start. I seem to get started doing something (Like reading Junie B. Jones books) and then after a couple of weeks I get off track.



I like the idea of a special meal a week...I was thinking of something like "Fiesta Fridays" or something so that we could have Tacos, burritos or fajitas or something....(I love Tex-Mex, and it's easy!). Before I had children, Sunday's was bread baking day for me. I used to only eat bread that I made from scratch....and I swore up and down that I would do this for my kids and never did because we got so busy...I love the smell of bread baking, and pounding out the dough is a great stress reliever



What kind of things do you all do on the weekend? My children are ages 6,5 and 2. Besides going to the park, I am kind of stuck for ideas...Going on a walk is a nice idea, Janet....once we get moved we could go on a walk through the neighborhood in the evenings. That would be fun. We haven't gone on a nightly walk since we moved to Florida because of the area of town that we live in....



These are really great ideas....thanks for the input.



Robin, how old are your children?



Kristen

Trying to create fond childhood memories for my kids is something we have tried hard to work on, especially with my husband gone so much. We make cookies every Sunday evening, with the kids help of course and then we sit around the table playing a game while eating our cookies and drinking milk. Every night (most of the time!), right before bedtime, my kids climb on my bed and I read to them. We have read all of the Harry Potter books and we are working on the Chronicles of Narnia now. It is a lot of fun for me and it calms them down before bed. It will be fun when they get older to see what they remember. I may be surprised when they remember completely different things than I thought they would. When we end up moving for residency (wherever that may be next year) I am planning on taking the children to the library to look at books about the area and have them pick things that they want to do when we get there. I am hoping that it will make the moving transition much easier.

Great topic!! Robin

[Phoebe]

This is such a great idea. Now that I will have a child, I need to think of things to make their lives special. I was thinking back to when I was a kid and things we used to do with my parents. Some of the things I remember most fondly were making popcorn with my dad to make Friday night TV shows like Dukes of Hazzard and Dallas.



When we were younger my mom would take us on many errands and we always asked, "Where are we going?". My mom would get annoyed at us and say that we were going crazy. That meant we were going to get ice cream. As we got older and were bored in the summer evenings, my mom would put together scavenger hunts for the neighborhood kids. We would get all of our friends together, make teams and go door-to-door looking for items on our list. At the end, she would make snacks for all the participants.



Just a few memories of my own.



Jennifer

Hi Kris,

My boys are 9, 6, 4 and 18 mos. It is hard to find something to do that they all enjoy or can do. My 4 year old and baby don't listen long to Harry Potter but they do like crawling on my bed and putting their heads on the pillow and just giggling. They usually are put to bed after I read a shorter story with them and then I read with the older two. I have much better luck with popcorn and a video because my kids LOVE popcorn and they think sitting on the floor on a blanket is fun. One fun activity also that we do occasionally is have a sleep out in the living room. All the kids (except the baby!) get to sleep on airmattresses with sleeping bags. They also love to play hide and seek in the dark. We use flashlights. No one is allowed to scare anyone. That is a huge hit with my boys, even the baby walks around saying "eek" so that the kids hiding will make a noise to make them easier to find.



I like the idea too of having an ethnic dinner night. I will have to figure out something that I can get ALL of them to eat. That is a challenge in my house.



For the weekends, My older boys play soccer on Saturdays so I feel like we live at the soccer field! Ha! But, it has become a fun tradition because there is a great playground at the school where my 4 year old can play and whoever else isn't playing. The baby loves to sit in his stroller, eat a treat and watch his brothers play. And it is a fun stress relief for me (unless my 9 year old is the goalie!!!)



I am in Arizona so running thru the sprinklers on Saturday is a weekly event. I also buy each of the kids a spray bottle and they spend hours running around squirting each other outside.



I am a little worried about what to do with the kids when school gets out in a couple of weeks for summer vacation. Anyone have any good summer activity ideas that can create fun memories and can keep me sane?

Robin

Four boys, Robin! I never knew! You are definately one busy mommy! I am so envious....I would love to have another one. How does that work with a 9 year old and an 18 month old? Does your 9 year old get along well with the little one or is there a lot of rivalry? Mine are 6 1/2, 5 and 2 1/2. If we decide to have one more then my oldes would probably be 8 when the baby was born.....I wonder if the age gap is too large?



Getting the kids all to eat the same thing is the challenge for us too. My daughter (5 yrs old) is a vegetarian....she has been since she was 3 years old and she figured out that meat comes from animals! I can sometimes trick a little meat into her (isn't that awful!!!) but for the most part she will only eat pasta, soups and veggie burgers...My two boys are crazy about chicken....anything with chicken in it is a hit....but unfortunately, my husband is a red meat kind of guy....he will live with the chicken.....I would just as soon rather order a pizza Any family meal ideas would be GREATLY appreciated from anyone...



I think we should start a summer vacation thread....I am afraid that the only memory I will create is of me bouncing off the walls!



Kris

I can just hear my kids years from now saying ... do you remember when mom went insane during Summer break! I definitely need to get a plan in the next two weeks or I will have to be pried off the walls! I will definitely get the kids in swimming lessons. There ... I have now filled 30 minutes of my day! Ha! For me, routine is the key.



As far as my oldest son having sibling rivalry with the baby... it really doesn't exist. Sure, he complains if he thinks I am making him do too much work watching the baby. I do medical transcription so, sometimes Jacob's (the oldest) help is necessary. But, Jacob has been a huge help. I just hope that the baby has some fond memories of him when he grows up. My husband's oldest brother is 9 years older and they have a good relationship but my husband doesn't have any memories of his brother at home. His memories mostly start after his brother went to college. I hope my kids have more memories than that.



I think having three was so much harder than having four. When Tyler (4 1/2) was born I had three kids at home all day, all the time. Now I have two kids in school all day and Tyler goes to preschool half the day. I actually babysit a little girl now and it is still easier than when I only had three.



I do get frustrated with food because my kids could live on macaroni and cheese, pizza and spaghetti. My baby won't eat any meat but the other three do eat hamburger. The older 2 eat chicken too. My problem is that they won't eat anything with it. They don't like rice, potatoes, or stuffing. They only like bread and pasta. I will be eaten out of house and home (as my mother used to say) if I can't find something inexpensive to fill them up. Sometimes I feel like a short order cook trying making specially ordered meals for each child. Ugh!



Oh... do your kids like cheese? I found a recipe in Family Fun magazine (I love that magazine!) that ALL my kids will actually eat. It is called Ziti casserole and I don't have the exact amounts but this should be pretty close.



10 oz Ziti pasta (I use any shaped pasta that I have). Cook until tender. Drain. Add 8 oz. of Ricotta cheese and at least one cup of Mozarella cheese. In a greased 9x13 baking pan, put in half a can of spaghetti sauce, top with the pasta mixture, add the rest of the spaghetti sauce, top with more Mozarella and sprinkle on Parmesan cheese. Cover and bake for 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven. It is really simple and the fact that they all eat it is GREAT!



Kris, I think it is great that you have been able to do school with three children. I don't know if I could do that. Congrats!



Robin

This sort of fits both the ritual and the dinner question - we like to make barbecue pizzas in the summer. You can make the dough individual size and then put various toppings on - of course my son only eats cheese on his, but we've sneaked canadian bacon or spinace on once or twice! It's fun to work the dough, and the kneading gives the kids a way to be in on it too. Cooking it on the grill keeps the house cool - and it might be useful this summer when California runs out of electricity! (I'm only partially joking with that one...)

I have an incredibly simple pizza dough recipe if you want it (can make it in the bread machine to simplify things even more!)

Kaaren

Mac and cheese, pizza and spaghettit: Sounds like exactly what we eat I like the ziti recipe, and of course, Kaaren, I would love the pizza dough recipe. We did buy some from Publix (our grocery store)...the stuff already made up in the section where you buy the rolls......It wasn't half bad. We have these special little pizza tins so that everyone can make their own...That's a good idea.



Robin, you said that it was harder with 3? Easier with 4? I just can't believe it!!!!! Of course, I thought it was harder with two than with three...until my little guy turned two and has been making each day an incredible adventure! Yesterday, he got into the potato chips (we buy the baked kind...they taste great and have more fiber than most breads!). He poured the bag on the floor and stepped on them. While I was cleaning that up, he got into the flour and threw it all over the floor. I got put him in time out and went and cleane dit all up. Then as I was getting Andrew and Amanda ready to go and pick up Thomas from work, Alex crept back into the kitchen and threw the chocolate milk powder (absolutely no nutritional value!) all over the floor. He is just into powdery things, I guess. He thought it was great...I was not impressed !!!!!



Hope everyone has a good day!



Kris

Kaaren, I love the pizza idea. I hadn't thought of grilling them outside. That's perfect. Considering it is 105 degrees here today! I would like the dough recipe too. Where in California are you?



Kris, I got a kick out of your son's "adventures" with food. We are starting the same thing with Dallin (19 months now). He was such a mellow baby but I think he is hitting the 2's a little too early. He likes to climb the counters. We have done the flour thing and sugar is always fun! No potato chips yet! At least everything has been fairly easy to clean up. But it is such a PAIN when you are trying to get something accomplished.



I still think having 3 kids was much harder than having 4. Of course, my third child is my handful. He is almost an exact duplicate of Dennis the Menace. It's a good thing that he is so cute! He was a hard baby to take care of because he wanted to be held constantly. Dallin has a lot of energy but he is happy most of the time so it has been much easier and a lot of fun.



I think I will go shopping later to see if I can find some small pizza tins. That's a great idea! Robin

Kris, I hear ya on the mess front!!! But I have two two year olds, and they give each other all sorts of wicked ideas. Sometimes I just cry when I go to the houses of other mothers with one. They have clean houses with toys confined to one corner. PLEASE tell me I'm not just out of control, but the two of them just create a party all day long, and mess, mess, mess.